Memoirs of Napoleon, vol 9 | Page 9

has gained her object. We

are no longer at Boulogne, and her subsidy will be neither more nor
less.
Of a hundred thousand men who composed that army, sixty thousand
are prisoners. They will replace our conscripts in the labours of
agriculture.
Two hundred pieces of cannon, the whole park of artillery, ninety flags,
and all their generals are in our power. Fifteen thousand men only have
escaped.
Soldiers! I announced to you the result of a great battle; but, thanks to
the ill-devised schemes of the enemy, I was enabled to secure the
wished-for result without incurring any danger, and, what is
unexampled in the history of nations, that result has been gained at the
sacrifice of scarcely fifteen hundred men killed and wounded.
Soldiers! this success is due to your unlimited confidence in your
Emperor, to your patience in enduring fatigues and privations of every
kind, and to your singular courage and intrepidity.
But we will not stop here. You are impatient to commence another
campaign!
The Russian army, which English gold has brought from the
extremities of the universe, shall experience the same fate as that which
we have just defeated.
In the conflict in which we are about to engage the honour of the
French infantry is especially concerned. We shall now see another
decision of the question which has already been determined in
Switzerland and Holland; namely, whether the French infantry is the
first or the second in Europe.
Among the Russians there are no generals in contending against whom
I can acquire any glory. All I wish is to obtain the victory with the least
possible bloodshed. My soldiers are, my children.

This proclamation always appeared to me a masterpiece of military
eloquence. While he lavished praises on his troops, he excited their
emulation by hinting that the Russians were capable of disputing with
them the first rank among the infantry of Europe, and he concluded his
address by calling them his children.
The second campaign, to which Napoleon alleged they so eagerly
looked forward, speedily ensued, and hostilities were carried on with a
degree of vigour which fired the enthusiasm of the army. Heaven
knows what accounts were circulated of the Russians, who, as
Bonaparte solemnly stated in his proclamation, had come from the
extremity of the world. They were represented as half-naked savages,
pillaging, destroying and burning wherever they went. It was even
asserted that they were cannibals, and had been seen to eat children. In
short, at that period was introduced the denomination of northern
barbarians which has since been so generally applied to the Russians.
Two days after the capitulation of Ulm Murat obtained the capitulation
of Trochtelfingen from General Yarneck, and made 10,000 prisoners,
so that, without counting killed and wounded, the Austrian army had
sustained a diminution of 50,000 men after a campaign of twenty days.
On the 27th of October the French army crossed the Inn, and thus
penetrated into the Austrian territory. Salzburg and Brannan were
immediately taken. The army of Italy, under the command of Massena,
was also obtaining great advantages. On the 30th of October, that is to
say, the very day on which the Grand Army took the above-mentioned
fortresses, the army of Italy, having crossed the Adige, fought a
sanguinary battle at Caldiero, and took 5000 Austrian prisoners.
In the extraordinary campaign, which has been distinguished by the
name of "the Campaign of Austerlitz," the exploits of our troops
succeeded each other with the rapidity of thought. I confess I was
equally astonished and delighted when I received a note from Duroc,
sent by an extraordinary courier, and commencing laconically with the
words, "We are in Vienna; the Emperor is well."
Duroc's letter was dated the 13th November, and the words, "We are in
Vienna," seemed to me the result of a dream. The capital of Austria,

which from time immemorial had not been occupied by foreigners--the
city which Sobieski had saved from Ottoman violence, had become the
prey of the Imperial eagle of France, which, after a lapse of three
centuries, avenged the humiliations formerly imposed upon Francis I.
by the 'Aquila Grifagna' of Charles V. Duroc had left the Emperor
before the camp of Boulogne was raised; his mission to Berlin being
terminated, he rejoined the Emperor at Lintz.
--[As soon as Bonaparte became Emperor he constituted himself the
avenger of all the insults given to the sovereigns, whom he styled his
predecessors. All that related to the honour of France was sacred to him.
Thus he removed the column of Rosbach from the Prussian
territory.--Bourrienne.]--
Before I noticed the singular mission of M. Haugwitz to the Emperor
Napoleon, and the result of that mission, which circumstances rendered
diametrically the reverse of its object, I will relate what came to my
knowledge respecting